Catch-22 (1961) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Summary edit see section history

Characters/People edit see section history

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• Capt. John Joseph Yossarian: The protagonist of Catch-22, he is a pilot in the war that provides the backdrop of the story.
• Major Sanderson: Camp psychiatrist who is convinced that Yossarian is mentally unstable because he acts rationally. The source of the quote explaining Catch 22.
• Dunbar: Stationed at the same base of Pianosa, with Yossarian. He and Yossarian seem to be friends, and the main reason may be their similar view of the war and the world. And they both have the same main objective during the war time - stay alive as long as possible.Dunbar tries to achieve it also by cultivating total boredom.
• Lieutenant Edward J. Nately III: A good-natured nineteen-year-old boy in Yossarian’s squadron. Nately, who comes from a wealthy home, falls in love with a whore in Rome and generally tries to keep Yossarian from getting into trouble.
• Milo Minderbinder: A fantastically powerful mess officer, Milo controls an international black-market syndicate and is revered in obscure corners all over the world. He ruthlessly chases after profit and bombs his own men as part of a contract with Germany. Milo insists that everyone in the squadron will benefit from being part of the syndicate and that “everyone has a share.” He also takes his job as mess officer very, very seriously; as a result, the troops in Yossarian’s division eat better than any others.
• Doc Daneeka: The medical officer. Doc Daneeka feels very sorry for himself because the war has interrupted his lucrative private practice in the United States, and he refuses to listen to other people’s problems. Doc Daneeka is the first person to explain Catch-22 to Yossarian.
• Major Major Major Major: The supremely mediocre squadron commander. Born Major Major Major, he is promoted to major on his first day in the army by a mischievous computer. Major Major is painfully awkward and will see people in his office only when he is not there. His promotion to squadron commander distances him from the other soldiers, reducing him to loneliness.
• Captain Aardvark: Captain Aardvark (called Aarfy) is the navigator in Yossarian's B-25. He is oblivious to incoming flak, repeatedly gets lost on missions, and always smokes a pipe.
• Chaplain Tappman: Tappman is a naïve Anabaptist minister from Kenosha, Wisconsin, who is tormented throughout the novel by his atheist assistant, Corporal Whitcomb.
• Colonel Cathcart: A full colonel, Cathcart is a group commander at the U.S. Army Air Corps base in Pianosa and is obsessed with becoming a general. As such, he does whatever it takes to please his superiors—in particular, by repeatedly raising the number of missions the men have to fly to complete a tour of duty, beyond that normally ordered by other outfits.
• Lieutenant Scheisskopf: Scheisskopf is the training commander for Yossarian and Clevinger, and he takes a particular dislike to Clevinger.
• Snowden: Snowden is a member of Yossarian's flight during a mission.
• Clevinger: Fellow Officer and foil of Yossarian who debates that fact that Yossarian claims everyone is trying to kill him.
• Havermeyer: Bombardier who lives in the tent next to Yossarian; considered by Colonel Cathcart to the the best bombardier in the squadron due to his fearless/reckless flying on missions.
• Chief White Halfoat: Native American officer, assistant to Captain Black.
• Hungry Joe: Pilot who repeatedly flies teh required number of missions only to have the required number raised; obsessed with photographing women in the nude.
• McWatt: A pilot for Yossarian's plane.
• Wintergreen: Ex-P.F.C; Wintergreen is repeatedly demoted and is as proud of his demotions as most would be of being promoted; Wintergreen "aspires" to be an ex-general.
• Captain Black: The camp's intelligence officer; Captain Black easily embraces the war since he is not involved in any combat.
• Major --- de Coverly: Major Major's executive officer, his only official duties are pitching horseshoes, renting two-room apartments for the soldiers on rest leave, and kidnapping Italian laborers. Because of his intimidating countenance, no one has the courage to ask him his first name.
• Kid Sampson: An underaged crew member on Yossarian's plane.
• Pritchard and Wren: Always mentioned together, these two captains are in charge of the squadron missions.
• Luciana: A woman in Rome with whom Yossarian has a relationship.
• Corporal Whitcomb: Chaplain Tappman's athiestic assistant who resents and harasses Tappman for standing in his way of advancing his career.
• General Dreedle: The no-nonsense commander of the U.S. Army Air Corps base in Pianosa.
• Nurse Duckett: A nurse in the hospital that Yossarian frequents who has an on-again, off-again realtionship with Yossarian.
• Dobbs: Repeated combat missions have taken their toll on Dobbs' nerves who has become one of the worst pilots in the corps.
• General Peckem: An exceedingly bureaucratic general with aspirations to replace General Dreedle as the commander of the forces at Pianosa.
• Mrs. Daneeka: Doc Daneeka's wife back in the States. Mistakenly believes that her husband has been killed in combat.
• Snowden: A member of Yossarian's flight crew; central figure in Yossarian's mental turmoil about the war.
• Nurse Cramer: Best friend of Nurse Duckett in the hospital that Yossarian frequents.
• Huple: A fifteen-year-old pilot who shares a tent with Hungry Joe; his cat sleeps on Hungry Joe's face.
• Lieutenant Colonel Korn: Colonel Cathcart's cynical assistant.
• Colonel Moodus: General Dreedle's son-in-law, whom the general hates.
• Lieutenant Mudd: "The dead man in Yossarian's tent," Mudd was killed in action after arriving in Pianosa but before officially joining the squadron. Due to the bureaucratic uncertainty over the status of Mudd, no one will accept responsibility for Mudd and his belongings.
• Orr: A bomber pilot who is continually getting shot down; the only person considered to be crazier than his good friend Yossarian, with whom he shares a tent.
• Sergeant Towser: Major Major's assistant and gate-keeper; Major Major orders him to deny anyone acces to his office if he is pressent.
• Mrs. Scheisskopf: Lietenant Scheisskopf's neglected wife who sleeps with her husband's cadets.
• Gus and Wes: Doc Daneeka's two orderlies, whose main activity is to paint airmen's gums and toes purple with gentian violet solution.

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Quotes edit see section history

• “There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; but as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to.”

• “What is a country? A country is a piece of land surrounded on all sides by boundaries, usually unnatural. Englishmen are dying for England, Americans are dying for America, Germans are dying for Germany, Russians are dying for Russia. There are now fifty or sixty countries fighting in this war. Surely so many countries can't all be worth dying for.”

• “But I’m afraid you have it backwards. It is better to live on one’s feet than die on one’s knees. That’s the way the saying goes.”

• “'Catch-22 says you have always got to do what your commanding officer tells you to''But Twenty-seventh Air Force says I can go home with forty missions''But they don't say you have to go home. And regulations do say you have to obey every order. That's the catch. Even if the colonel was disobeying the Twenty-seventh Air Force order by making you fly more missions, you'd still have to fly them, or you'd be guilty of disobeying an order of his....'”

• “Where are the Snowdens of yesteryear?”

  Yossarian

• “Ou sont les Neigedens de l'antan?”

  Yossarian

• “You're American officers. The officers of no other army in the world can make that statement. Think about it.”

  Colonel Cargill

• “He had lived for almost twenty years without trauma, tension, or neurosis, which was proof to Yossarian of just how crazy he really was.”

• “There were no miracles; prayers went unanswered, and misfortune tramped with equal brutality on the virtuous and the corrupt.”

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Pianosa Island, Italy: The main island on which the story revolves around.
• Bologna, Italy
• Rome. Italy
• Avignon
• Washington, DC
• Malta
• Sweden
• Wisconsin
• Sicily
• Pacific Ocean
• Orvieto
• Germany
• Duluth
• Palermo
• Naples
• Cairo
• Russia
• England
• France
• Spain

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Organizations edit see section history

• USAAC: All the major characters are members of the United States Army Air Corps.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• Catch-22: A situation in which a desired outcome or solution is impossible to attain because of a set of inherently illogical rules or conditions

Series & Lists edit see section history

Preceded by The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and followed by The Lord of the Rings.

Preceded by The Pillars of the Earth, and followed by The Old Man and the Sea.

Preceded by 1984, and followed by The Grapes of Wrath.

Preceded by The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and followed by The Violent Bear It Away.

Preceded by The Old Man and the Sea, and followed by Blink.

Preceded by Tess of the D'Urbervilles, and followed by The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.

Preceded by 1984, and followed by Animal Farm.

Preceded by The Red Badge of Courage, and followed by A Farewell to Arms.

Preceded by Jane Eyre, and followed by Wuthering Heights.

Preceded by Ulysses, and followed by The Great Gatsby.

Preceded by The Great Gatsby, and followed by Beloved.

Preceded by A Tale of Two Cities, and followed by The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Preceded by The Iliad / The Odyssey, and followed by Walden.

Preceded by Heart of Darkness, and followed by 1984.

Preceded by Tender Is the Night, and followed by A Farewell to Arms.

Followed by Nevidni človek.

Preceded by 1984, and followed by The Sound and the Fury.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Joseph Heller (Author) - widely regarded as one of the best post-World War II satirists

Other Contributors:

1. Robert Andrew Parker (Illustrator)
2. Eduardo Saló (Translator)
3. Gitica Jakopin (Translator)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• BBC's Big Read (April 2003, #11)
• National Book Award (Finalist, 1962: Fiction)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PS3558.E476 C3 2004
• Dewey: 813/.54 22

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Young Adults

This is a war novel and depicts some violence. Also some innapropriate parts.There are aspects of this book that are harder to understand for younger kids.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Classics
• Books › Literature & Fiction › World Literature › United States › 20th Century
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Authors, A-Z › ( H ) › Heller, Joseph

Movie Connections edit see section history

• Catch-22 (1970) (IMDb): Staring Alan Arkin, Martin Balsam, Richard Benjamin, Art Garfunkel, Bob Newhart, Anthony Perkins, Jon Voight, and Orson Welles
• M*A*S*H (1970) (IMDb)

More Books Like This edit see section history

Books Influenced by This Book edit see section history